This week, the MENA sports scene was marked by tragedy after the killing of more Palestinian footballers in Israeli attacks on Gaza, adding to the growing toll on the enclave’s sports community.
Meanwhile, European clubs like AC Milan and Newcastle United have strengthened ties in the Gule region, as a Turkish court jails a former football president for attacking a referee.
Two Palestinian footballers killed as Israel’s attacks on Gaza devastate sports community
Two Palestinian footballers were among the dozens killed this week by Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to a statement by the Palestinian Football Association on Monday.
Hisham Shadi Al-Thalathini, who played for Palestine Club, and Iyad Abu Khader and Hisham, who represented Al-Tuffah, were killed late on Monday, the statement said.
This brings the total number of football players killed by Israel in Gaza to 344, the statement added.
Gaza’s sports community has suffered significant losses in Israel’s war on the enclave, described by many leading rights groups and UN experts as a “genocide” and “war crime”.
The latest killings come after medical sources said two players from the Jabalia Services Football Club – Louay Jaber Masoud and Anas Mahmoud Yahya – were killed after Israeli forces targeted the Beit Lahiya displacement centre in northern Gaza.
Iyad Abu Khader and Hisham Shadi Al-Thalathini are among the martyrs who ascended yesterday in the #Gaza Strip during barbaric zionist occupation aggressions.
Both are soccer players with Iyad playing for Gaza’s Al-Tuffah Club and Hisham a player in the Palestine Club.
Glory… pic.twitter.com/j2mouEIUph
— Dr. Zain Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) November 13, 2024
In the past two weeks, six members of the Shabab Jabalia Club, which used to compete in the Gaza Strip Premier League, were killed, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
These included striker Mustafa Shaheen, 28, who was killed in an Israeli massacre in Beit Lahiya, and midfielder Wahib Ouda, 33, both of whom had helped the club secure second place in the Gaza Strip Premier League in 2016.
The Israeli offensive has claimed the lives of numerous coaches, referees, and athletes, including children, in a ruthless bombing campaign that has cost the lives of at least 43,700 Palestinians in Gaza.
The Palestinian Olympic Committee estimates that 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed in the enclave, while training grounds and sports infrastructure have been utterly destroyed.
European football heads to MENA region
Leading European football teams are making inroads in the MENA region, with AC Milan and Newcastle United both increasing their footprint in the Gulf region during the international break.
The Italian side opened the AC Milan Academy Pro in Bahrain this week, a country that already hosts some of the world’s leading sporting events such as the Formula 1.
The football academy will be based at the Nasser Centre for Science and Technology (NCST) in Askar and will be used to spot and train talent on the island nation.
In 2022, Bahrain-based investment company Investcorp held talks with AC Milan owners about buying out the club but left the race shortly after.
The Italian side, which has won seven European Cup/Champions League trophies, recently launched an academy and HQ in Dubai, as part of its MENA expansion plans.
Back in 2010, the Milan side opened an academy in Kuwait aimed at young players between five and 15.
Saudi-owned Newcastle United have also made their way to the MENA region during the international break, with a winter camp in the sun-kissed kingdom.
Players not representing their national sides used the facilities of Cristiano Ronaldo’s side, Al-Nassr – also owned by the Saudi government – for a week of warm-weather training in Riyadh with a fans event in the capital on Saturday.
Newcastle spent part of the winter in the kingdom in 2022, months after the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) buy-out of the Premier League side in 2021 in a whirlwind of controversy over the kingdom’s rights records.
The North East side won’t return to Saudi Arabia until at least the winter of the 2024/25 season.
Turkish club defends ex-president after jail sentence over referee assault
A Turkish court on Monday sentenced a former top-flight football club executive to more than three-and-a-half years in prison for attacking a referee on the field at the end of a Super Lig game last season.
MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca punched referee Halil Umut Meler in the face after the final whistle of a 1-1 draw against Caykur Rizespor last year.
Meler, who fell to the ground, was also kicked in the melee that broke out when fans invaded the pitch after Rizespor scored a last-minute equalizer on Dec. 11, 2023.
The incident caused global outrage and prompted the Turkish Football Federation to suspend all league games for several weeks.
The court in Ankara convicted Koca of “intentionally wounding a public official” and sentenced him to three years and seven months in prison, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The court also convicted Koca of threatening the referee and violating laws aimed at preventing violence in sports but suspended the sentences.
Three other people who were also on trial for attacking the referee were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to five years, the agency reported.
Koca, who resigned as club president soon after the incident, is expected to appeal the verdict. He was briefly jailed last year before being released on bail.
Earlier, lawyers representing the defendants requested their acquittal, claiming that they had committed the crime under “unjust provocation”, Anadolu reported.
Ankaragucu was fined 2 million Turkish Lira ($59,000) and forced to play five home games without fans.
The referee was briefly hospitalised with a small fracture near his eye.
